Any household product in service for up to sixty years is going to show signs of wear and tear and that includes the robust steel wire Bertoia chairs that have been in continuous production worldwide since the first customer order shipments in 1953.
Traveling to Pennsylvania is always bittersweet because of my early history there, but this time was more sweet than bitter. The weather was wonderful, the company stellar, and the reception fantastic.
Florence, better known as Shu, who passed on January 25th at age 101, and my father, Harry Bertoia, were great friends. They worked closely together on the modern Bertoia chairs that ultimately came out in 1952.